[MacTUG] A complex "reset after power failure" question...

[Donald Duff-McCracken]

Hi gang

I have a couple of mac minis that I am using to run some hallway displays.

The software that we need to use is Windows only, so these machines are running as windows computers on Apple hardware. I need to set them up to reset after power failure. This would be no big deal if they were running OS X. In fact, they do not even have OS X on them.

I was hoping that the energy settings was hidden somewhere in the open firmware (as it is on a windows computer in the bios). But it does not look like this is the case. Note that I cannot easily test the mac minis as they are securely mounted many feet above ground level!!

I did try it on a mac server I had that had to bootable partitions.

  1.  When booted from the main partition I noted that the server was set to reboot after power failure.
  2.  I then booted from the other part ion and set it not to reboot after a power failure
  3.  I then booted again from the original drive and (to my disappointment) the mac was still set at its original setting of booting after a power failure.

I was hoping that in the test I just did that the mac would not be set to boot after a power failure — I was hoping this to be the case in that it would mean that the mac would be set to restart without there having to be a resident OS installed.

Now this does not really make sense in a lot of ways… I can have a mac set to network boot and tell it reboot after a power failure and likely do this and not have an OS on my computer, yet when I boot from one OS (on a dual-OS-X-boot mac) and tell it to perform one way it is then altered when I boot from the other Mac

Any suggestions? If I put the Mac partition back (I think we removed it for security reasons — why leave extra Oses on a computer that is in a public space), set it to restart after power failure, and set the start up disk to be windows, will it behave as I want?

Any suggestions would be welcome before I break out a rather tall stepladder haha

don
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Donald Duff-McCracken
Technical Services Manager
Mapping, Analysis & Design
Faculty of Environment
University of Waterloo
(519) 888-4567 x32151
http://www.environment.uwaterloo.ca/computing/people/don.html
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